JOHANNESBURG - Delegates at the Earth Summit reached agreements on Thursday to clean up production of hazardous chemicals by 2020, to implement new environmental protection plans from 2005 and to improve public health.
Following are details of accords reached at the August 26-September 4 World Summit on Sustainable Development.
CHEMICALS
Delegates agreed adate of 2020 to improve production of chemicals to minimise damage to human health. The accord builds on environmental measures launched in an "Agenda 21" plan for action from a 1992 summit in Rio de Janeiro.
The text says nations will take actions to:
"Renew the commitment, as advanced in Agenda 21, to sound management of chemicals throughout their life cycle and of hazardous wastes for sustainable development and for the protection of human health and the environment, inter alia, aiming to achieve by 2020 that chemicals are used and produced in ways that lead to the minimisation of significant adverse effects on human health and the environment."
ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING
Delegates set a date of 2005 for implementing national strategies for sustainable development, the concept that nations must protect the planet for future generations without plundering its resources.
The text says nations will take steps for "the formulation and elaboration of national strategies for sustainable development and begin their implementation by 2005."
HEALTH
Delegates reached agreement that a World Trade Organisation (WTO) accord on intellectual property rights should be used to promote access to medicines for all, a key issue because poor countries suffering badly from Aids complain of high prices for patent medicines.
It says nations will take actions to:
"Address public health problems affecting many developing and least developed countries, especially those resulting from HIV/Aids, tuberculosis, malaria and other epidemics, while noting the importance of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, where it has been agreed that the TRIPS Agreement does not and should not prevent WTO members from taking measures to protect public health. Accordingly, while reiterating our commitment to the TRIPS agreement, we reaffirm that the Agreement can and should be interpreted and implemented in a manner supportive of WTO members' right to protect public health and, in particular, to promote access to medicines for all."
TRIPS is shorthand for Trade-Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. The WTO agreed on trade liberalisation measures in Doha last year.
